Sara Jewett, from the Actresses and Celebrities series (N60, Type 2) promoting Little Beauties Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products 1887

Curator: This captivating portrait of Sara Jewett, circa 1887, is part of the "Actresses and Celebrities" series by Allen & Ginter, intended to promote their Little Beauties Cigarettes. What springs to mind for you looking at this piece? Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by how this commercial image tries to pass itself off as high society. It is photography masquerading as old master portraiture, reduced and repackaged into something consumable, just like the cigarettes it’s advertising. Curator: Absolutely. I find it somewhat wistful. There's an air of manufactured glamour— the elaborate hat and the studied pose— but I sense also a subtle melancholy in her gaze. It feels almost… bittersweet. Like she knows she's participating in her own objectification. Editor: I am also fascinated by the means of its distribution, these cards tucked into cigarette packs. Here, in the Gilded Age, tobacco production meets the rise of celebrity culture. Suddenly, actresses are collectable commodities and smoking is inextricably tied to notions of luxury and aspiration. Curator: It’s incredible how these cards turn into miniature time capsules. I'm thinking about the labour involved here; from the tobacco farms, all the way to the printing presses turning out these delicate cards. Each one passed between countless hands before finding its way into circulation. Editor: Precisely. We forget that there were factory workers, often women, meticulously inserting these into each pack. This wasn’t about high art for those doing the labor. For them it was about repetitive gestures, physical strain, and the immediate material needs for survival. It redefines the definition of work and what is valuable. Curator: It really highlights the contradictions inherent in consumer culture then, doesn't it? A symbol of glamour paid for, ultimately, through the exploitation of labour and… perhaps, also a kind of quiet sacrifice of artistic integrity? But such beautiful art in such small size nonetheless. Editor: Exactly. The more you unpack it, the less innocent this seemingly quaint little portrait seems. These tiny cards can trigger conversations far beyond surface appearance of a pretty face. It’s almost overwhelming to remember it promoted such a toxic item as a cigarette, when its purpose was to enchant us.